Nextcloud, Seafile, OpenCloud or ownCloud: who owns your file storage
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Comparisons of self-hosted file storage usually end at feature lists and sync speed. Both are measurable and both are secondary to the decision.
The reason companies look at these systems in the first place is sovereignty. And for that, one question matters that appears in no feature list: who owns the software, and where do the people who write it work?
In this product field the answer is unusually eventful. The same codebase has been forked twice, and both times the developers left.
All details from the repositories and licence files, as of 31 August 2026.
Table of contents
- Forked twice, both times without the developers
- The candidates at a glance
- Nextcloud
- Seafile
- OpenCloud
- ownCloud
- Where the data sits and why it matters
- Which one for which situation
- What a comparison does not answer
- How we approach this at WZ-IT
- Further guides
Forked twice, both times without the developers
The history explains today's field better than any feature table.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2010 | ownCloud is founded |
| 2016 | The founder and much of the team leave and start Nextcloud |
| Late 2023 | Kiteworks, a US vendor, acquires ownCloud together with Dracoon |
| January 2025 | Around 15 developers of ownCloud Infinite Scale leave and found OpenCloud |
Twice the same event: the code stayed, the people left. The first time produced Nextcloud, today the largest project in the field. The second produced OpenCloud, run by the Berlin-based Heinlein Group, which also operates mailbox.org and OpenTalk.
For a decision this implies no verdict, but it does imply a question worth asking: who develops the software I intend to still be running in five years, and on whose behalf?
The candidates at a glance
Figures from the public repositories, as of 31 August 2026.
| Nextcloud | Seafile | OpenCloud | ownCloud | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | 36,644 | 15,183 | 5,871 | 2,106 (ocis) |
| Core licence | AGPL-3.0 | GPLv2 with addition | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Paid tier | subscription | Professional, proprietary | subscription | subscription |
| Stewardship | Nextcloud GmbH (DE) | Seafile Ltd. (CN) | Heinlein Group (DE) | Kiteworks (US) |
| Last push | 31 Aug 2026 | 28 Aug 2026 | 31 Aug 2026 | 31 Aug 2026 |
| Focus | collaboration platform | file synchronisation | file storage | file storage |
All four are actively developed. None of them is in retreat.
Nextcloud
Nextcloud is the largest and most feature-rich project in the field. The server is under AGPL-3.0, with no user limit and no feature gate in the free edition. What is paid for is support, operational assistance and additional features for very large installations.
What comes with it goes well beyond files: calendars, contacts, video calls, document editing through Collabora or OnlyOffice, forms, tasks, and an app catalogue with several hundred extensions.
That is both strength and weakness. Anyone looking for a collaboration platform finds here the most complete open-source answer. Anyone who only wants to sync files runs considerably more software than the task requires, with corresponding effort in updates and hardening.
Stewardship sits with Nextcloud GmbH in Germany. For procurement with a sovereignty requirement, that is the most straightforward case in the field.
Seafile
Seafile takes a different approach and is the most specialised of the four: it synchronises files, and does so faster than the competition, particularly with many small files.
The reason lies in the storage layout. Seafile does not store files as ordinary files but splits them into blocks and manages them in its own format, much as Git does with source code. That makes comparisons fast and storage efficient.
The licence boundary is the sharpest in this comparison. The Community Edition is under GPLv2 with an additional permission for linking OpenSSL. The Professional Edition is proprietary and usable for up to three users without a licence file.
The Professional Edition holds, among other things:
- full-text search inside documents
- fine-grained permissions on folders and subfolders
- LDAP and Active Directory integration
- department and organisation management
The third point is the decisive one for companies. Anyone who does not want to maintain accounts twice from twenty users up needs the paid edition. With the other three candidates, directory integration is in the free edition.
Stewardship sits with Seafile Ltd., originating in China. Whether that matters for your procurement is a question of your requirements, not a technical one.
OpenCloud
OpenCloud is the youngest candidate and the most interesting case. It is a direct fork of ownCloud Infinite Scale, created in January 2025, built by the same roughly 15 developers who had previously developed Infinite Scale at ownCloud.
It is under Apache-2.0, the most permissive licence in the comparison, and written in Go rather than PHP. That shows in operation: lower resource requirements and a simpler architecture than the PHP systems.
It is run by OpenCloud GmbH of the Heinlein Group in Berlin, which has operated open-source infrastructure for thirty years, including mailbox.org and OpenTalk.
The reservation is its age. A project from 2025 has fewer operating years behind it than Nextcloud or Seafile, and the feature set is deliberately narrower. Anyone needing a collaboration platform will not find one here. Anyone looking for a modern file store with German stewardship finds the most direct route.
ownCloud
ownCloud is the origin of the field and today its most difficult case.
The software continues to be developed, the repositories are updated, and Kiteworks has set up an Open Source Program Office for ownCloud and retired the contributor licence agreement. Those are steps in the right direction.
Two points remain and belong on the table:
The ownership question. Kiteworks is a US company. For procurement whose very reason is independence from US vendors, that contradicts the reason for the procurement, regardless of the quality of the software.
The team's departure. The developers who built Infinite Scale have worked on OpenCloud since January 2025. Organisational structures cannot replace that.
For existing installations this creates no urgency. For new decisions it is the point at which most companies reach for OpenCloud or Nextcloud.
Where the data sits and why it matters
One difference rarely appears in comparisons and is the most important in an emergency: can you reach your data without the application?
| Solution | Storage form | Readable without the application? |
|---|---|---|
| Nextcloud | ordinary files plus a database for metadata | yes |
| ownCloud | ordinary files plus a database | yes |
| OpenCloud | own storage layout, files accessible | largely |
| Seafile | block-based in its own format | no, only through Seafile tools |
This is not an argument against Seafile, whose speed comes from exactly that layout. It is an argument for aligning the backup strategy with it: with Seafile the backup has to run through the intended tools; a filesystem snapshot alone does not suffice.
What a backup that accounts for this difference looks like we described in the comparison of backup tools.
Which one for which situation
| Situation | Obvious choice |
|---|---|
| Collaboration beyond files: calendars, documents, video calls | Nextcloud |
| Lean file storage, German stewardship, modern architecture | OpenCloud |
| Synchronising many small files, speed decisive | Seafile, budget for Professional |
| Existing ownCloud Infinite Scale | evaluate a move to OpenCloud, the path is short |
| Replacing OneDrive or Google Drive | Nextcloud or OpenCloud, depending on feature needs |
What a comparison does not answer
Three points decide success and appear in no table:
Migrating what exists. Copying files is the easy part. Shares, permissions, version history and external links are the laborious part, and they transfer with varying success depending on the source.
Employee behaviour. File storage that is slower than the tool it replaces gets bypassed. Then files sit on personal accounts again, and sovereignty is won on paper and lost in practice.
The restore. Not the backup, the restore. Anyone who has never checked whether a single folder can be recovered with its permissions has a backup of unknown value.
How we approach this at WZ-IT
We start with the usage question, not the product question: what should staff do with it, and what do they do today instead. That usually settles whether a collaboration platform is needed or file storage suffices.
We have operated Nextcloud for clients for years, including integration with Keycloak or Authentik and document editing through Collabora. Where a lean store is wanted, we look at OpenCloud.
Migration at our end includes a restore test before the old system is switched off. A migration counts as finished only once a recovery has worked at least once.
Further guides
- WeTransfer versus Nextcloud - exchanging files with external parties
- Nextcloud at WZ-IT - architecture, integration and operations
- restic, Borg or Kopia - backup for file storage
- Open-source licence changes - why stewardship is an operational question
- Managed open source - operating open-source applications
Unsure which solution fits your user count? We look at the current state, assess the candidates and support the migration including a restore test. Book a call
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Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to important questions about this topic
Nextcloud emerged in 2016 as a fork of ownCloud after the founder and much of the development team left the company. Nextcloud has since grown into a broad collaboration platform while ownCloud stayed closer to the file core. Both share their origins but have shared no code for ten years.
Kiteworks, a US vendor that acquired ownCloud together with Dracoon in late 2023. For companies moving away from US vendors on sovereignty grounds, that changes the picture, because the vendor of the software now sits under US law.
A fork of ownCloud Infinite Scale, founded in January 2025 by around 15 developers who had previously built exactly that software at ownCloud. It is run by OpenCloud GmbH of the Berlin-based Heinlein Group, which also operates mailbox.org and OpenTalk. OpenCloud is under Apache-2.0.
The server is under AGPL-3.0. Alongside it there are paid subscriptions with support, additional features for large installations and operational assistance. The core is fully open source and usable with no user limit.
No, the licence is split. The Community Edition is under GPLv2 with an additional permission for linking against OpenSSL. The Professional Edition is proprietary and usable for up to three users without a licence file. Features such as full-text search inside documents, fine-grained folder permissions, LDAP integration and department management sit in the Professional Edition.
With Seafile yes, where LDAP integration sits in the Professional Edition. With Nextcloud, OpenCloud and ownCloud, directory integration is included in the free edition. For companies from around twenty users up, this is often the decisive point.
Seafile, particularly with many small files. It stores data in its own block-based format rather than as ordinary files in the filesystem. That is the reason for the speed and equally the reason the data is not directly readable without Seafile.
From ownCloud Infinite Scale the path is short, because OpenCloud is a direct fork of it built by the same developers. From the classic PHP edition of ownCloud it is a genuine migration involving transfer of files, shares and accounts.
That is a fair question. Nextcloud ships calendars, contacts, video calls, document editing and an app catalogue. Anyone who only wants to sync files runs more than they need, with corresponding update effort. OpenCloud and Seafile are the leaner answers for that case.
Nextcloud where collaboration beyond files is wanted and the operating effort is budgeted. OpenCloud where a modern, lean file store with German stewardship is the priority. Seafile where sync speed with many small files is decisive and the Professional Edition is budgeted.
The repositories continue to be updated, and Kiteworks has set up an Open Source Program Office for ownCloud. What cannot be undone is the departure of the Infinite Scale development team in January 2025. Anyone building new today should answer that question deliberately rather than pass over it.
Nextcloud and ownCloud store files as ordinary files in the filesystem, plus a database for metadata. OpenCloud uses its own storage layout but keeps files accessible. Seafile stores block-based in its own format. For the question of how you reach your data without the application in an emergency, that is the most important difference.
Written by
Timo Wevelsiep
Co-Founder & CEO
Co-Founder of WZ-IT. Specialized in cloud infrastructure, open-source platforms and managed services for SMEs and enterprise clients worldwide.
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